Thermal insulation fiber and textile made of the same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are a thermal insulation fiber, a thermal insulation textile and a use of a fiber containing a nano unit in manufacturing a thermal textile. The thermal insulation fiber includes a conventional fiber; and a nanounit. Based on a total weight of the convention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 0.1 wt % to 3 wt %, so as to improve an insulation rate of the thermal insulation fiber; the nano unit comprises a microparticle having a size of 300 nm to 8000 nm; and the microparticle comprises at least one of a mixture of Ti and Ce, a mixture of Ti and Mg, and a mixture of Ti, Ce, Mg, Si and Ca.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims a priority to and benefits of Chinese PatentApplication Serial No. 201310069914.9, filed with the State IntellectualProperty Office of P. R. China on Mar. 5, 2013, the entire content ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a fiber and a textile, and moreparticularly to a thermal insulation fiber and a textile made of thethermal insulation fiber.

BACKGROUND

In the related art, for a vast majority of traditional textile fibersand textiles, their thermal insulation performances are improved byincreasing an amount of the fibers and enhancing a thickness and aweight of the fiber textile. For example, mainstream thermal underwearsold in the current market has disadvantages of a heavy weight and alarge thickness, thus resulting in an irreparable defect in term ofwearing comfort.

In addition, a heat storage material is used to improve the thermalinsulation performance of the fiber textile. The so-called heat storagematerial is a novel chemical material being capable of storing heat. Forthe heat storage material, a phase transformation occurs at a specifictemperature along with heat absorption or release, which may be used tocontrol an ambient temperature or to be stored as a thermal energy. Itsprinciple and technical solution have significant differences ascompared with the thermal insulation. For example, a hygroscopiccalorific fiber, one of the heat storage materials, has an excellenthygroscopic performance, which is capable of converting a kinetic energyof water molecules perspired from a human body into a thermal energy,thereby improves a sensible temperature, because an increasedtemperature enables perspired moistures to be evaporated more easily.

However, it is relatively limited to improve the thermal insulationperformance by the hygroscopic calorific fiber. Besides, cost of suchmaterial is relative expensive.

SUMMARY

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a thermal insulationfiber and a textile made of the thermal insulation fiber with betterthermal insulation performance and lower cost, which are easy to bemanufactured and industrialized.

In an aspect, the present disclosure provides in embodiments a thermalinsulation fiber, including:

a conventional fiber; and

a nano unit,

wherein based on a total weight of the convention fiber, the nano unitis of a content of 0.1 wt % to 3 wt %, so as to improve an insulationrate of the thermal insulation fiber;

the nano unit includes a microparticle having a size of 300 nm to 8000nm; and

the microparticle includes at least one of a mixture of titanium (Ti)and cerium (Ce), a mixture of Ti and magnesium (Mg), and a mixture ofTi, Ce, Mg, silicon (Si) and calcium (Ca).

Alternatively, the conventional fiber includes a chemical fiber, and thechemical fiber includes at least one of an artificial fiber and asynthetic fiber.

Alternatively, based on the total weight of the convention fiber, thenano unit is of a content of 1.5 wt % to 3 wt %; and the nano unitincludes the microparticle having a size of 300 nm to 4000 nm.

Alternatively, in the nano unit, the microparticle includes:

Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; and Cebeing of a content of 60 weight units to 300 weight units, or

Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; and Mgbeing of a content of 10 weight units to 500 weight units, or

Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; Cebeing of a content of 60 weight units to 300 weight units; Ca being of acontent of 50 weight units to 500 weight units; Mg being of a content of10 weight units to 500 weight units; and Si being of a content of 50weight units to 3000 weight units.

Alternatively, wherein based on the total weight of the conventionfiber, the nano unit is of a content of 0.1 wt % to 1.5 wt %; and thenano unit includes the microparticle having a size of 4000 nm to 8000nm.

Alternatively, in the nano unit, the microparticle includes:

Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; and Cebeing of a content of 60 weight units to 300 weight units, or

Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; and Mgbeing of a content of 10 weight units to 500 weight units, or

Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; Cebeing of a content of 60 weight units to 300 weight units; Ca being of acontent of 50 weight units to 500 weight units; Mg being of a content of10 weight units to 500 weight units; and Si being of a content of 50weight units to 3000 weight units.

Alternatively, in the nano unit, the microparticle further includes:

K being of a content of 50 weight units to 100 weight units;

Sn being of a content of 100 weight units to 500 weight units; and

S being of a content of 50 weight units to 100 weight units.

In another aspect, the present disclosure provides in embodiments athermal insulation textile at least including a part of the thermalinsulation fiber described above.

In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides in embodiments ause of a fiber containing a nano unit in manufacturing a thermaltextile, wherein the fiber containing the nano unit is any one of thethermal insulation fiber described above.

According to above embodiments, the present disclosure has the followingadvantages. The thermal insulation fiber according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure includes the conventional fiber and the nano unit,the nano unit is of a content of 0.1 wt % to 3 wt %, so as to improve aninsulation rate of the thermal insulation fiber, the nano unit includesa microparticle having a size of 300 nm to 8000 nm, so that the thermalinsulation performance and a Clo value of the fiber according toembodiments of the present disclosure are improved significantly ascompared with a conventional textile being of a same weight and made ofa same weave. Besides, the fiber according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure has advantages of low manufacturing cost, simplemanufacturing process and being easy to be industrialized as comparedwith a thermal insulation fiber in the related art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Above and/or additional aspects and advantages of embodiments of thepresent disclosure will become apparent and more readily appreciatedfrom the following descriptions made with reference to the drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a thermal insulation rate of a textileobtained in Example 1 of the present disclosure as compared with that oftextiles obtained in comparative experiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will be made in detail to examples of the present disclosure.The examples described herein with reference to drawings areexplanatory, illustrative, and used to generally understand the presentdisclosure, and cannot be construed to limit the present disclosure. Ifthe specific technology or conditions are not specified in the examples,a step will be performed in accordance with the techniques or conditionsdescribed in the literature in the art or in accordance with the productinstructions. If the manufacturers of reagents or instruments are notspecified, the reagents or instruments may be commercially available

Example 1

Table 1 and FIG. 1 illustrate testing data and a diagram thereof showinga thermal insulation rate of a textile obtained in Example 1 of thepresent disclosure as compared with that of textiles obtained incomparative experiments, respectively.

(1) Title: thermal insulation performance experiment

(2) Object: testing the thermal insulation performances of the fiber andthe textile made of the fiber. In order to improve the thermalinsulation performances thereof, air which does not readily conduct heatis injected between fibers, so as to inhibit heat dissipation.

(3) Method: tests are conducted based on “JIS L1096 Testing methods forwoven and knitted fabrics”. Using a warmth retaining tester, a hot platesetting at a certain temperature (36±0.5° C.) and test piece arecombined as one group. After 2 hours, a heat energy A dissipated fromthe test piece is obtained. Besides, a heat energy B dissipated from thetest piece when not combined with the hot plate is also obtained after 2hours. The thermal insulation rate (%) is calculated according to thefollowing formula:

Thermal insulation rate (%)=(1−A/B)×100

(4) Test Organization:

Japanese statutory testing organizations—General Foundation BOKENspinning quality rating agencies in eastern business

(5) Test Samples:

5.1 the fiber according to embodiments of the present disclosure,includes a conventional fiber and a nano unit, wherein based on a totalweight of the convention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 2.9 wt%, so as to improve an insulation rate of the thermal insulation fiber;the nano unit includes a microparticle having a size of about 300 nm;and the microparticle includes Ti being of a content of 9000 weightunits, Ce being of a content of 60 weight units, and other traceelements as required in accordance with the related art.

The nano unit of the present disclosure can be added into theconventional fiber by any one of existing methods for manufacturing afiber. A method for manufacturing the fiber used in the presentdisclosure includes the following steps: A). making a natural polymermaterial, a natural inorganic material (such as viscose), a syntheticpolymer material or a synthetic inorganic material (such as nylon andacrylic material) as a spinning melt or solution; B). adding the nanounit including Ti and Ce into the spinning melt or solution; and C).forming the fiber after extruded through a spinneret. Other steps arethe same as the method for manufacturing the fiber in the related art,which is not described in details herein.

It would be appreciated that the nano unit may include Ti and Ce at anyother ratio by weight units. Through a large number of repeated tests bythe inventor, the fiber including the nana unit at various ratios mayhave an excellent thermal insulation performance. The present examplemerely selected one group of experiment data from numerous experimentsfor illustration (being similarly hereinafter).

In addition, the microparticle of the present disclosure may be an oxideor a nitride under a normal temperature state, or may be other formscapable of existing stably, such as a compound or a monomer.

It should be noted that, “weight unit” used herein is alternatively aweight ratio of “microgram/kilogram”; or may be other weight units inaccordance with practical requires (being similarly hereinafter).

5.2 Comparative Experiment:

a sample obtained in comparative experiment 1: a hygroscopic calorificunderwear sold by Aeon, its test method is same as the “Method”described above;

a sample obtained in comparative experiment 2: a hygroscopic calorificunderwear sold by Uniqlo, its test method is same as the “Method”described above;

a sample obtained in comparative experiment 3: a hygroscopic calorificunderwear sold by Shimala, its test method is same as the “Method”described above;

a sample obtained in comparative experiment 4: a 100% wool underwearsold by Ito Yokado, its test method is same as the “Method” describedabove; and

a sample obtained in comparative experiment 5: a 100% cashmere sweatersold by Uniqlo, its test method is same as the “Method” described above.

(6) Test Results:

Stable 1: data obtained by measuring the thermal insulation performancesof the textiles gram thermal weight insulation clo (g/m²) rate (%) valueexplanation Textile obtained 150 43.7 0.46 Textile including theaccording to the thermal insulation present disclsoure fiber Textileobtained 150 18.7 0.16 hygroscopic calorific in comparative underwearsold by Aeon experiment 1 Textile obtained 150 15.4 0.13 hygroscopiccalorific in comparative underwear sold by experiment 2 Uniqlo Textileobtained 150 20.5 0.18 hygroscopic calorific in comparative underwearsold by experiment 3 Shimala Textile obtained 340 35.4 0.32 100% woolunderwear in comparative sold by Ito Yokado experiment 4 Textileobtained 220 41.5 0.41 100% cashmere sweater in comparative sold byUniqlo experiment 5

The diagram showing the thermal insulation rate of the textile obtainedin Example 1 as compared with that of the textiles obtained incomparative experiments is shown in FIG. 1. When comparing the textileobtained in Example 1 and the textiles obtained in comparativeexperiments 1 to 3 which are of same weights, it can be seen that thetextile obtained in Example 1 has the thermal insulation performancemore than twice as that of other textiles. It would be appreciated that“gram weight” is a commonly-used unit for evaluating textile and silkproducts, referring to a weight per square meter and representing as“g/m^(2”). The gram weight is a vital indicator of the knitted fabric.

Further, each of the textiles obtained in comparative experiments 1 to 3has a thermal insulation rate much higher than a vast majority ofunderwear sold in the market.

According to a provision of “FZ/T 73022-2004 knitted thermal underwear”in China, an outer package for thermal underwear should be labeled withindicators marking the thermal insulation rate and content,particularly, the “thermal insulation rate” is not allowed to less than30%. In fact, for a vast majority of the so-called thermal underwear,their thermal insulation rates are improved by increasing the gramweight (i.e. increasing the thickness and the weight of underwear).

The textile made of the thermal insulation fiber according toembodiments of the present disclosure achieves an unexpected technicaleffect. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the thermalunderwear being of a same gram weight as compared with that ofconventional underwear achieves a thermal insulation rate much higherthan the conventional underwear. Referring to Table 1 and FIG. 1, it canbe seen from a comparison between the textile obtained in Example of thepresent disclosure and the textile obtained in comparative experiments 4and 5: the textile made of the fiber according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure is of the thermal insulation rate even much higherthan that of the woolen or cashmere product with a much lower weightgram. In other words, the underwear made of the thermal insulationtextile according to the present disclosure may be used to replace thewoolen or cashmere sweater.

It should be noted that, a difference between the “thermal insulation”of the present disclosure and the “heat storage and preservation” in therelated art lies in that: the “heat storage and preservation” refers toa process of providing a heat energy to a heat storage product only froman external heat source (or an internal substance generating heat) andstoring the heat in the heat storage product; while a working principleof the thermal insulation fiber according to the present disclosure isto reflect a heat energy generated by a human body back as much aspossible by the nano unit, and maintain reflected heat energy insulatedfrom external environment. In addition, above experiments of the presentdisclosure aim to the thermal insulation performance of underweartextile, and there is no energy supplement or supply from an externalheat source (such as sunshine), therefore the present disclosure alsoprovides in embodiments a use of fibers containing the nano unit inmanufacturing a warm textile.

Example 2

A difference between the present example and Example 1 lies in that: atest sample is a thermal insulation fiber, including a conventionalfiber; and a nano unit, wherein based on the total weight of theconvention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 0.2 wt %; the nanounit includes a microparticle having a size of 8000 nm; and themicroparticle includes Ti being of a content of 500 weight units, Cebeing of a content of 300 weight units, K being of a content of 100weight units, Sn being of a content of 100 weight units and S being of acontent of 100 weight units. The nano unit of the present disclosure canbe added into the conventional fiber by any one of existing methods formanufacturing a fiber.

The test result of the present example is: the textile containing thethermal insulation fiber of the present disclosure having a gram weightof 150 g/m² is of the thermal insulation ration of 43.2%. Othercomparative examples are the same in Example 1, which is not describedherein in details.

A diagram showing a thermal insulation rate of a textile obtained inExample 2 as compared with that of textiles obtained in comparativeexperiments is not shown.

Example 3

A difference between the present example and Example 1 lies in that: atest sample is a thermal insulation fiber, including a conventionalfiber; and a nano unit, wherein based on the total weight of theconvention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 1.5 wt %; the nanounit includes a microparticle having a size of 4000 nm; and themicroparticle includes Ti being of a content of 10000 weight units, andMg being of a content of 10 weight units. The nano unit of the presentdisclosure can be added into the conventional fiber by any one ofexisting methods for manufacturing a fiber.

The test result of the present example is: the textile containing thethermal insulation fiber of the present disclosure having a gram weightof 150 g/m² is of the thermal insulation ration of 43.5%. Othercomparative examples are the same in Example 1, which is not describedherein in details.

A diagram showing a thermal insulation rate of a textile obtained inExample 3 as compared with that of textiles obtained in comparativeexperiments is not shown.

Example 4

A difference between the present example and Example 1 lies in that: atest sample is a thermal insulation fiber, including a conventionalfiber; and a nano unit, wherein based on the total weight of theconvention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 1.6 wt %; the nanounit includes a microparticle having a size of 5000 nm; and themicroparticle includes Ti being of a content of 500 weight units, Mgbeing of a content of 500 weight units, K being of a content of 80weight units, Sn being of a content of 300 weight units and S being of acontent of 70 weight units. The nano unit of the present disclosure canbe added into the conventional fiber by any one of existing methods formanufacturing a fiber.

The test result of the present example is: the textile containing thethermal insulation fiber of the present disclosure having a gram weightof 150 g/m² is of the thermal insulation ration of 43.1%. Othercomparative examples are the same in Example 1, which is not describedherein in details.

A diagram showing a thermal insulation rate of a textile obtained inExample 4 as compared with that of textiles obtained in comparativeexperiments is not shown.

In addition, the present example also provides another method formanufacturing the thermal insulating fiber, including a step ofmanufacturing fiber masterbatch. The nano unit is added duringmanufacturing the fiber masterbatch, and then a fiber is obtainedthereafter. Other steps involving in the method for manufacturing thefiber of the present example are same as the method for manufacturingthe fiber in the related art, which is not described in details.

Example 5

A difference between the present example and Example 1 lies in that: atest sample is a thermal insulation fiber, including a conventionalfiber; and a nano unit, wherein based on the total weight of theconvention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 1.8 wt %; the nanounit includes a microparticle having a size of 3000 nm; and themicroparticle includes Ti being of a content of 500 weight units, Mgbeing of a content of 500 weight units, Ce being of a content of 100weight units, Ca being of a content of 300 weight units, Si being of acontent of 1700 weight units, K being of a content of 50 weight units,Sn being of a content of 500 weight units, and S being of a content of50 weight units. The nano unit of the present disclosure can be addedinto the conventional fiber by any one of existing methods formanufacturing a fiber.

The test result of the present example is: the textile containing thethermal insulation fiber of the present disclosure having a gram weightof 150 g/m² is of the thermal insulation ration of 43.7%. Othercomparative examples are the same in Example 1, which is not describedherein in details.

A diagram showing a thermal insulation rate of a textile obtained inExample 5 as compared with that of textiles obtained in comparativeexperiments is not shown.

In addition, another object of the present disclosure is to provide athermal insulation textile, such as a knitted or woven product, whichincludes at least a part of the above fibers, or may be fully made ofthe thermal insulation fiber of the present disclosure.

Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a use of afiber containing the nano unit in manufacturing a warm textile. Thefiber containing the nano unit is any one of the thermal insulationfibers described above. The thermal insulation fiber of the presentdisclosure may have other uses in other or similar fields, however, inthe present disclosure, the multi-group experiments are sufficient toprove that the thermal insulation fiber of the present disclosure has abetter thermal insulation performance under the same conditions (forexample, the same gram weight), therefore can be effectively used in thefield of warm textile manufacture.

It is obvious that one skilled in the art can use a thermal insulationfiber of the present disclosure and textile made from the fiber toconstitute various types of textile fibers and textiles and thecorresponding preparation methods.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The thermal insulation fiber according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure has advantages of better thermal insulation, lower cost,being easy to be manufactured and industrialized as compared with theexisting thermal fiber, and can be effectively used in manufacturing thethermal insulation textile.

Although explanatory embodiments have been shown and described, it wouldbe appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodimentscannot be construed to limit the present disclosure, and changes,alternatives, and modifications can be made in the embodiments withoutdeparting from spirit, principles and scope of the present disclosure.

Reference throughout this specification to “an embodiment,” “someembodiments,” “one embodiment”, “another example,” “an example,” “aspecific example,” or “some examples,” means that a particular feature,structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or exampleof the present disclosure. Thus, the appearances of the phrases such as“in some embodiments,” “in one embodiment”, “in an embodiment”, “inanother example,” “in an example,” “in a specific example,” or “in someexamples,” in various places throughout this specification are notnecessarily referring to the same embodiment or example of the presentdisclosure. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials,or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments or examples.

1. A thermal insulation fiber, comprising: a conventional fiber; and anano unit, wherein based on a total weight of the convention fiber, thenano unit is of a content of 0.1 wt % to 3 wt %, so as to improve aninsulation rate of the thermal insulation fiber; the nano unit comprisesa microparticle having a size of 300 nm to 8000 nm; and themicroparticle comprises at least one of a mixture of titanium (Ti) andcerium (Ce), a mixture of Ti and magnesium (Mg), and a mixture of Ti,Ce, Mg, silicon (Si) and calcium (Ca).
 2. The thermal insulation fiberaccording to claim 1, wherein the conventional fiber comprises achemical fiber, and the chemical fiber comprises at least one of anartificial fiber and a synthetic fiber.
 3. The thermal insulation fiberaccording to claim 2, wherein based on the total weight of theconvention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of 1.5 wt % to 3 wt %;and the nano unit comprises the microparticle having a size of 300 nm to4000 nm.
 4. The thermal insulation fiber according to claim 3, whereinin the nano unit, the microparticle comprises: Ti being of a content of500 weight units to 10000 weight units; and Ce being of a content of 60weight units to 300 weight units, or Ti being of a content of 500 weightunits to 10000 weight units; and Mg being of a content of 10 weightunits to 500 weight units, or Ti being of a content of 500 weight unitsto 10000 weight units; Ce being of a content of 60 weight units to 300weight units; Ca being of a content of 50 weight units to 500 weightunits; Mg being of a content of 10 weight units to 500 weight units; andSi being of a content of 50 weight units to 3000 weight units.
 5. Thethermal insulation fiber according to claim 2, wherein based on thetotal weight of the convention fiber, the nano unit is of a content of0.1 wt % to 1.5 wt %; and the nano unit comprises the microparticlehaving a size of 4000 nm to 8000 nm.
 6. The thermal insulation fiberaccording to claim 5, wherein in the nano unit, the microparticlecomprises: Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weightunits; and Ce being of a content of 60 weight units to 300 weight units,or Ti being of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; andMg being of a content of 10 weight units to 500 weight units, or Tibeing of a content of 500 weight units to 10000 weight units; Ce beingof a content of 60 weight units to 300 weight units; Ca being of acontent of 50 weight units to 500 weight units; Mg being of a content of10 weight units to 500 weight units; and Si being of a content of 50weight units to 3000 weight units.
 7. The thermal insulation fiberaccording to claim 4, wherein in the nano unit, the microparticlefurther comprises: K being of a content of 50 weight units to 100 weightunits; Sn being of a content of 100 weight units to 500 weight units;and S being of a content of 50 weight units to 100 weight units.
 8. Athermal insulation textile, at least comprising a part of the thermalinsulation fiber according to claim
 1. 9. A use of a fiber containing anano unit in manufacturing a thermal textile, wherein the fibercontaining the nano unit is the thermal insulation fiber according toclaim
 1. 10. The thermal insulation fiber according to claim 6, whereinin the nano unit, the microparticle further comprises: K being of acontent of 50 weight units to 100 weight units; Sn being of a content of100 weight units to 500 weight units; and S being of a content of 50weight units to 100 weight units.